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So the Republican Party pulled it off. On Friday, March 7 Ohio Libertarian governor hopeful Charlie Earl and his Attorney General candidate Steve Linnabary found out they were no longer candidates. Through thuggish and authoritarian tactics the Republicans managed to knock the gubernatorial candidates of both the Ohio Libertarian and Ohio Green Parties off the 2014 primary ballot.
How did they do it?
Like any two-bit dictator, they did it by usurping the U.S. Constitution and simply outlawing all minor parties in the state of Ohio. It is very difficult to get signatures for a candidate when your party has been banned from the ballot.
In legal terms, it is called “irreparable harm.”
Before he was banished from the ballot, Earl was polling at 6 percent of the vote. Political pundits across the state speculated that he might cost John Kasich to lose his re-election bid. The day Earl initially announced for governor, a Republican Party Senator introduced a bill that would kill all minor parties in Ohio.
Critics aptly nicknamed the bill “The John Kasich Re-Election Protection Act.”
The blatantly unconstitutional bill struck down by the U.S. Southern District Court in Columbus uiltimately accomplished its goal by delaying and disrupting campaign season signature gathering of both the Libertarian and Green Parties.
The Ohio Green Party managed to submit 629 signatures to get a governor candidate on the ballot. This was after facing hearings throughout the fall questioning whether the Party should legally exist, and then having its ballot status removed by Kasich and the Republican legislature. By the way, the weather was brutal for signature collectors. The Secretary of State ruled that the Green Party did not have enough valid signatures.
The Ohio Libertarian Party collected more than enough valid signatures, however their gubernatorial candidate, Charlie Earl, was also tossed off the ballot. A box went unchecked on a petition from a paid petitioner, according to the Secretary of State’s Hearing Officer Brad Smith.
Smith is a former U.S. Elections Commissioner and author of the influential tome “Unfree Speech.” That book was cited by the U.S. Supreme Court in support of the notorious Citizens United vs. Federal Elections Commission ruling that proclaimed that money is free speech. As a result of the decision, individuals and corporations can spend unlimited amounts of money to influence elections.
Smith is hardly a disinterested party. He a well-known Republican operative and shill for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. He has dedicated his life to allowing the rich to buy up U.S. politics. Plutocrats everywhere line up when they want their ass kissed by the best. Brad Smith: Making the world safe for billionaires.
It is Brad Smith’s influence in American politics that allowed Rupert Murdoch of Fox News to pass a million dollars through the Republican Governors’ Association to support John Kasich’s 2010 successful gubernatorial bid.